In addition to the smothered mate, in which the mated king is unable to move because all the surrounding squares are occupied by his own pieces, there are a lot of mating patterns in which the king is only partly smothered by his own pieces.

Let’s have a look at the next diagram and try to figure out how to exploit that Black’s king is almost smothered.

The solution is visible by selecting the text between the two brackets.

[ 1. Rh4+ gxh4 2. g4# ]

Remember that if you succeed in taking away all the surrounding squares of your opponent’s king a simple check will be sufficient to win the game. Taking away these squares can be done by attacking these squares or by forcing your opponent to place his pieces on these squares.